I am proud to announce Kathmandu as the latest sponsor to join with The Long Walk Home. Kathmandu offers a great range of outdoor adventure wear, equipment and accessories. For more information about Kathmandu click here.
Hello friends!
I have just had a piece published at Bucketlist Publications about where I got my mojo for adventure back…Africa. When I found out it was going to be published on the site I was drinking a glass of water and after scurrying off to the office to inform a friend about it, I returned a half hour later to finish my glass of water. If you are wondering why I got so excited about it, it’s because Bucketlist Publications has had over 1,000,000 views in 7 months and has over 16,000 followers, meaning my post was just sent to the inboxes of that many people! You can’t buy that sort of publicity. Although the post wasn’t directly about The Long Walk Home, it has sent a few people to my website and received some great comments. Click here to view the piece.
I also thought I’d add that this website has had over 6000 views, which although is a little less then a million, I think it is a fabulous effort for something that started in Birdsville. Thanks to you all for clicking on the website and for sharing. Don’t forget to follow the website on the right hand side of the ‘latest news’ page to receive the latest updates to your inbox.
For anyone wishing to attend the fundraiser in Adelaide on Wednesday March 21st, don’t forget to email me at thelongwalkhome2012@gmail.com to secure your tickets for the event. Also, I am looking for donations of items for prizes and raffles, as well as unique items to auction. Anything from gift vouchers, items, food items, hampers, household items, hardware, lunch/dinner packages, holiday packages, B&B stays or anything else that tickles your fancy are all welcome. All who donate will receive a link on my website ‘sponsor’ page and a notice on facebook. All proceeds from the night are going directly to the RFDS so you’ll be helping out a brilliant cause!
Lastly, if you are an AFL fan and want a chance to take home a ‘money-can’t-buy-but-it-will’ item don’t forget to get on down to the fundraiser at the Watermark Hotel in Glenelg. Be sure to bring your happy pants and get ready for a few laughs, a couple of stories, some games, a fun night all round, as well as some cold beverages and yummy food!
Jenna
I was just flicking through my photos of my trip to Africa and being in a sharing mood I thought I would upload just a few photos of what adventure means to me. Everyone has a different view on adventures which is what makes them so wonderful. From kids to adults our idea and feel for adventure changes and adapts to our beliefs, interests and the company we keep. Feel free to comment and share your adventures, maybe they might inspire someone else. Less reading and more looking this time, which should keep Casino happy!
Weighing in at just 87g and measuring 291cm, we were once friends who would share half an hour together once a week. Each time we’d meet I’d start by thinking it was ok and usually end wishing it was never invented. This morning however our relationship went to another level. Today it became my enemy.
Waking up I realised there was only 11 minutes of training left until I could relax and hope that the past week would kindly return the energy it took from me. It was just 11 little minutes or 660 seconds that I had to get through. Unbeknown to me though, those 11 minutes would make me cringe, rave expletives, squeal in frustration, and prove to myself how truly uncoordinated I am after a long and tiring week.
The week started out like most with a session on the treadmill, after which I took no notice of what Michael had said and went on to check out the Personal Trainer who was holding a circuit workout at the community gym. Thinking I would just take it easy and have a peek at what she was doing, I forgot that I struggle with this concept and instead found myself dripping with sweat after 20 minutes. I followed this up with an email to Michael that started “Ok…so…I have a confession.” I then proceeded to admit that I didn’t listen to him when he said to do one or the other, not both.
So after this little bump in the road, I continued with the program and by yesterday afternoon my legs were feeling heavier then usual as I pushed the incline to the max to get my heart rate up. Needless to say that after the 11 minutes where I met my new enemy today, I had a few choice words to say when I returned my training ratings this morning.
My new enemy is skipping…the devil itself. I know it is fantastic for your health, and up until this morning I actually enjoyed the jumping/hopping/running through the rope that would leave me dripping in sweat after only a couple of minutes. Through a combination of muscle tiredness from my selective hearing and not doing as I was told, a big week in Birdsville and a hot sun, instead of starting to trip on the rope after 6 or 7 minutes I started tripping before the clock had even reached 60 seconds. It was at precisely this point that my frustration kicked in.
I then quickly starting letting out little hmmphs when my feet would fail to clear the rope, which progressed to squeals of frustration. The latter of which would of been highly entertaining for the neighbours had they been out. In the end though all I really wanted to do was find the nearest sharp object and cause irreversible damage to the rope. Unfortunately I refrained from doing this, primarily because there were no sharp objects nearby, rather then the fact I wouldn’t be able to buy another in Birdsville.
Although it sent me into a frustration frenzy today, out of sheer stubborness and determination I’ll be back to defeat my enemy next week.
I never would of thought that at 4 months out we would already be 10% of the way to reaching the fundraising goal. However today the tally clicked over the $2000 mark and has given me a little extra motivation to keep up with the promotion and publicity of the event. Not that my determination was wavering, but for just a week I put it at the back of my thoughts and concentrated more on this thing called life.
After having The Long Walk Home consume my thoughts for the past few months, I spent Sunday fishing out on a river bank with some wonderful friends, watching the glassy water flow by, feeling the mud on my feet as they sank, cringing when my foot hit a tree root a few inches below the surface, waiting for a nibble on the line, smelling the fire burning and more importantly being away from the temptation to check my emails to see if a potential sponsor had replied, or if people were clicking on my blog.
Never being one for technology, I was initially most disappointed when Birdsville first got permanent mobile reception in 2010. Before this I was content to come home and be rather inaccessible to people for a period of time (I’m an introvert ok, so alone time is my thing), however since starting The Long Walk Home journey, a mobile phone has made everything easier and more up to date. Although it wouldn’t have been impossible to get the word out, it would have been more time consuming then it already is, and it would of remained less up to date. As such, without naming names I would like to thank the mobile phone companies for taking Birdsville out of the 0.01% not covered, and putting it in the 99.9% of Australia’s population that is covered.
Bear in mind though big companies, although you may make life a little easier, safer and more reliable for people living in rural areas, when it all gets a little too much I will always revert back to my little piece of mud on the riverbank…
The Long Walk Home is proud to announce The Outback Loop as the first major sponsor.
Comprising 2 pubs and 2 tracks, The Outback Loop is an experience not to be missed when travelling through the remote areas of outback Australia. Providing visitors with an itinerary rather then just a destination, The Outback Loop brings together 2 unique gems in the outback and provides for a journey where memories are made.
The Birdsville Hotel is engraved in outback Australia’s history and has provided a spot for endless tales to be told from the bar stools over a cold beer. The Hotel lies at the end of the Birdsville Track and is a spot where many people find themselves shortly after arriving in town either via road or by air. Offering visitors and guests award winning meals, comfortable accommodation, aroma filled coffee and an atmosphere to boot, the Birdsville Hotel has something for every person who passes through its doors.
The Innamincka Hotel on the other hand sits on the Strezlecki Track, and overlooks the Cooper Creek while providing visitors with a fantastic experience at one of the most remote pubs in Australia. Although isolated, The Innamincka Hotel offers its guests an experience not to be missed, from scrumptious and mouth-watering meals, to cold beer and a starlight cinema in the beer garden, whilst still providing comfortable accommodation in a range of different options.
If a trip to Australia’s great outback is on your bucket list, don’t forget to make The Outback Loop a part of your itinerary.
Below is a little something put together by Michael to give you an idea of what my training consists of. I however have also found it useful as I now know the training is only going to get harder…Thanks Michael!
During her long trek into the desert Jenna will be walking over countless sand dunes a day so it is important that her body can handle the stress. That’s where I come in. I’ve identified muscular endurance and aerobic capacity as being the predominant systems that Jenna will need to call upon during her walk, so I have designed her training program around these two factors. This is a quick look at her training program for this week:
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Week 6 |
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Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
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Treadmill |
Resistance Training |
Treadmill |
Resistance Training |
Treadmill |
Skipping |
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||||||
|
110-120 |
bpm |
Squats |
110-120 |
bpm |
Squats |
110-120 |
bpm |
Warmup |
REST |
|||
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5 |
min |
Pushups |
5 |
min |
Pushups |
5 |
min |
2 |
min FAST | |||
|
140-150 |
bpm |
Lunges |
140-150 |
bpm |
Lunges |
140-150 |
bpm |
1 |
min REST | |||
|
22 |
min |
Kettlebell |
22 |
min |
Kettlebell |
22 |
min |
4 |
times | |||
|
110-120 |
bpm |
Reps |
Sets |
110-120 |
bpm |
Reps |
Sets |
110-120 |
bpm |
Recovery |
||
|
5 |
min |
10 |
3 |
5 |
min |
10 |
3 |
5 |
min |
Stretch |
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|
|
|
|
|
|
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Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Three times a week Jenna is walking on the treadmill for a bit over half an hour. This type of activity is aerobic exercise which helps to improve the function of the body’s heart and lungs in utilising oxygen. The higher Jenna’s aerobic capacity come walk time, the more efficiently her body will work and the easier it will be to get over those sand dunes come June. Being the warmer months of the year, especially in Birdsville, having access to a treadmill and an air conditioned room has made this form of exercise ideal for Jenna’s circumstances. Come the cooler months and a little closer to the walk, I will incorporate some desert walks into her program to prime her for what is ahead not only physically but also mentally. Jenna also utilizes stretching and foam rollers to aid in her flexibility and recovery after a session.
Tuesday and Thursday
While it is important Jenna’s lungs and heart can handle the walk, it is also highly important that her muscles, legs especially, are also up to the task. Jenna is currently performing resistance training twice a week. At the moment she is performing basic compound movements which utilise more than one joint of the body, to help condition her muscles. Later during the program she will be performing higher repetition based movements, in order to help improve her muscular endurance allowing for her body to cope with the repetitive motion of walking over sand hills day after day, and to allow her to recover faster at night time.
Managing the training load
To ensure I don’t overload Jenna and so that she doesn’t end up with an injury, I carefully monitor her training intensities and workloads every week. All the data I record and receive from Jenna is plotted out onto graphs and analysed to ensure Jenna is training at the levels I want her to be at.
Training is going well at the moment and from Jenna’s reports she is starting to see some results to indicate that it’s all working. Our first training cycle has been complete and we still have five to go so I’m very confident Jenna will be primed and ready to go come the end of June!
Michael
The training program that Michael has created is going really well, and is also good for my mental state as I can see improvements through monitoring my heart rate. In 5 weeks I have already seen a marked improvement in my aerobic capacity, which definately helps with the motivation. That said I am sure there will come a time when it all seems a little bit too hard, but I’m certain a few carefully chosen words directed at the man putting through the pain should make me feel better! Stay tuned for updates about the training over the upcoming months. – Jenna
Over the past few weeks I have been busy organising my team and getting them to write a paragraph about themselves. I have since however realised that I don’t know most of the people following my blog, and as such doubt they know me. Thus I have written a little something which will hopefully help those who only know me as a bar of soap, get to know me a little better. I do have a tendency to write novels though but here goes…
Being born and bred in Birdsville, Outback Queensland, I have finally come home to roost after leaving the nest at 12 years of age and heading off to boarding school in Adelaide, followed by a student exchange in Canada, a university degree in Sydney, and then some more travelling. Now 24, I have recently returned from 5 months travelling through parts of Africa, which have certainly left me with a clearer view of what I love in life. After a few months of volunteering in some wildlife reserves and a few humorous encounters with BIG and CONFRONTING animals, I mosied onto parts of the Drakensberg Mountains, before heading up for my big adventure to the top of Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
A year or so before my friend had told me about her Kilimanjaro trek, and after my life took a couple of unexpected turns I decided that it was time to go. After quitting my job, saying goodbye to the town I was living in, dropping my dog off with the family and spending my savings, I said goodbye to Australia and am now forever grateful for that unexpected turn as it allowed me to find my passion for walking. I know the words passion and walking rarely go hand in hand, but then again I’m a little different. Being up on those mountains and knowing that the only person who can drag your sloth moving bum to the top is yourself, makes it all the more amazing when you get there. The mental games that you play on a mountain trek are far more dangerous then the physical pain you put yourself through, and I firmly believe that with some self motivation and will power you can get to the top if you go slow enough. I went slow enough. For anyone who has done the treks or have them on your bucket list below are a few excerpts I wrote about my treks, they were once much longer but I’ve cut them down so you’re not still sitting here in an hour.
“…by sunrise we were still not at the summit, so we watched it over Kili above the clouds which gave me a little bit of extra strength. To be honest though by this point the summit still seemed so far away, and with the numerous false summits along the way I did entertain the thought of turning around, only to look back and see that it was just as hard to get off the mountain! It was a game of mental toughness in all its glory! Upon reaching the summit I was exhausted, but I did enjoy the view for long enough to take a couple of photos, have a bite to eat and psych myself up enough to clamber down the rocks that I had just spent the last 7 and a half hours clambering up. By the time I reached the gate at the bottom of the mountain I had been walking for 16 hours that day, my feet were on fire, my knees did not know why their owner would choose to do such a stupid thing, my hips wanted to remove themselves from my body, my mind did not care that buffalo were a mere 100m away from us, nor was I amused when the guide wanted to stop and take a photo of me with the giraffes in the background, I wanted to cry at the pain I was in and I wanted to vomit. All in all it was a great warm up for Kili!”
- Mt. Meru
The sunrise. Looking towards the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro
The top of Mt. Meru!
“We walked slow (well I walked slower then the rest), we farted…a lot (said to be a good sign of acclimatistion), I drank copious amounts of water, I ate like a dog who hadn’t eaten in a week, my socks stank, my clothes were dirty, my hair was a birdsnest that I never attempted to brush, I had blisters which ankle tape seemed to sort out, the weather was beautiful, it was cold though and moving was tough…Along the way we all got burnt, even putting sunscreen on 4 times a day was useless against the sun that high up, I fashioned a David Attenborough style hat using my trusty needle and thread, someone dropped their camera down the drop toilets along the trail (which are just a hole in the floor) and I repeatedly left my wooden walking stick behind and could always be heard saying “where’s my stick?”.
…the best way I can describe walking at altitude is either like a chameleon where one foot goes forward, stops, then the other comes forward, and where there is absolutely no forward momentum, while the other way is like having your feet tied together and you sort of shuffle. While the rest of my crew strolled along in front I chilled out the back singing all sorts of songs and always walking slow enough so I did not have to breathe through my mouth. My favourite songs while on the mountain were The Fisherman (thanks Sacred Heart), Hakuna Matata, Sweet Caroline, Circle of Life, as well as most other ones from the Lion King. They took my mind off the monotonous, gruelling task at hand and took me to a ‘better’ place!
Eventually we all needed a break…it was at this moment that your mind starts to go ‘why are you doing this?’, ’you know you want to turn around, come on…there’s still 5 hours to go, turn around’. It’s like having a devil and an angel on each shoulder taunting you. At this moment my experience on Meru was invaluable and I knew that if I just kept going I’d get there, I never doubted my ability as I’d done it once before…not having to fight with yourself is a huge burden off your back when you’re at 5500m, there is no oxygen and it is cold. My slow and steady idea paid off as I was the first to step onto the crater rim at Stella Point where we all got a second wind and could finally see the purpose of all this madness…Uhuru Peak (I was the last to get to there though)!…From here is was a beautiful, gruelling trudge around the crater rim passing glaciers either side and looking onto the crater floor and our home for the night. Along this path my head started to throb…and throb…and throb. By the time I got to Uhuru Peak at 5985m I was sure someone was playing a drum inside my head, so after a few photos, congratulations and hugs all round, I hotfooted it down to crater camp to allow the thumping inside my head to decrease. After a good hearty meal it was off to bed and no sleep. I’m pretty sure humans weren’t designed to sleep at that altitude and as such I didn’t. My head never really did stop pounding, everytime I rolled over in my sleeping bag I wanted to vomit, however I couldn’t because I was too busy gasping in air as I couldn’t get enough oxygen by breathing through my nose. It was horrible. To make matters worse I woke up from a doze at 4am with ice INSIDE my tent and my water frozen even though it was insualted. I was sleeping in 9 layers of clothes and it made no difference…after crying and gritting my teeth through the pain that my hands were in from the intense cold, combined with my pounding head and the urge to vomit, I followed my guide and 2 other climbers off that mountain as quickly as possible!”- Mt. Kilimanjaro
In the Barranco Valley
The highest handstand I could manage at 4800m with Mawenzi Peak in the background
Mt. Kilimanjaro 5895m
So what else can I tell you about me? I am the youngest of 6 kids, I have a dog called Chevy, I am fairly self motivated, I like trying things that get my adrenaline pumping (however usually quickly realise once is enough), I like gardening and a dip in the billabong on a hot day, as well as a walk whenever the urge gets me!
And so I suppose that leads onto the walk itself. In my first post I wrote about how it came about and why I was doing it, but since then I’ve been doing some “evolving” (as my media mogul sister would put it…check out KBS) and realised that I left a crucial thing out. Since experiencing the thrill of working towards something and achieving it like I did with Mt.Meru and Kilimanjaro, I came to the conclusion that the feeling was brilliant! I believe I need the goal of something to work towards, and the buzz you get from doing something so physically and mentally demanding has to be felt to be understood. It grabs you like an addiction and takes your focus until such time that you can say ‘I did it’. I don’t think I realised the impact of achieving the goal of the two mountains until well after I was finished, and worked out just how much hard work went into making it to the top and more importantly back down again. Most people would use the term self-indulgent to describe a day at a spa or a yummy desert, me however…I use the term to describe walking 435km across the Simpson Desert so I can get the buzz at the end!
I hope that this has shed some light on who I am for those who don’t know me, and perhaps explained a few things for those who do. By embarking on this journey I hope to create an event that all those involved in can feel proud to be a part of, from my support crew right through to the person sitting behind their computer half way around the world. My idea is that the more people we can get involved, the more happy people there will be around the world and that’s always a good thing. So if there is one link you forward to your friends I would be very appreciative if you made it this one, so they can become a part of the journey too. The support has been amazing and all thanks goes to YOU!
Jenna Brook
